[01/29/08 - 09:26 AM]CBS Orders New Police Drama "Flashpoint" Enrico Colantoni, Hugh Dillon and David Paetkau all star in the drama, which was originally developed by CTV and Toronto-based Pink Sky Entertainment.

[via press release from CBS]

CBS ORDERS NEW POLICE DRAMA "FLASHPOINT"

Ensemble Drama Is Inspired by the Real Life Stories of an Elite Big City Strategic Response Unit

CBS has ordered 13 episodes of FLASHPOINT (working title), a new police drama about an elite big city Strategic Response Unit (SRU) that will be broadcast later this year both on the CBS Television Network in the U.S. and on CTV, Canada's largest privately owned English language broadcast network.

FLASHPOINT, starring Enrico Colantoni, Hugh Dillon and David Paetkau, was originally developed by CTV and Toronto-based Pink Sky Entertainment. For the series, Pink Sky has joined forces with Avamar Entertainment in association with CBS Paramount Network Television and CTV.

FLASHPOINT is an emotional journey into the tough, risk-filled lives of a group of cops in the SRU (inspired by Toronto's Emergency Task Force). It's a unique unit that rescues hostages, busts gangs, defuses bombs, climbs the sides of buildings and talks down suicidal teens. Members of a highly-skilled tactical team, they're also trained in negotiating, profiling and getting inside the suspect's head to diffuse the situation to try and save lives.

Production will begin on the new one-hour drama in Toronto beginning in April.

Anne Marie La Traverse, founder of Pink Sky and a former executive producer at Alliance Atlantis, and Bill Mustos, founder of Avamar, and former drama chief at CTV, are executive producers of FLASHPOINT. The series was created by Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern.